Reflections and learnings: exploring the breadth and depth of GEDSI processes within Water for Women 

This 'Dive deeper' series give readers a chance to learn more from Water for Women's experience and should be read in conjunction with our more detailed Impact Report.

Central to Water for Women was the breadth and depth of GEDSI practice that took place in and across partner projects, of which the comprehensive results and achievements have been articulated in the Impact report. This has been a program like no other, with an explicit twin-track approach reflected in the design (end of program outcomes (EOPOs)) and MEL frameworks. The twin track approach included both targeted and mainstream activities.

This framing (and associated resourcing) enabled Fund partners to identify, implement and report on GEDSI activities, strategies and results. Making GEDSI explicit and central from the outset, and ensuring it was embedded in all the Fund EOPOs gave GEDSI greater weight and significance in WASH programming in Phase 1, and enabled implementing teams to extend and deepen their understanding of GEDSI and its importance to better and more sustainable WASH outcomes. This approach recognised that SDG 6 – Clean water and sanitation for all, cannot be achieved if it is not by all. “For All” is only possible with strong Leave No One Behind approaches and strategies in place. “By All” is based on the premise that leaving no one behind can only be achieved if the agency and voices of those who are traditionally left behind or at risk of being left behind are supported to frame appropriate strategies to ensure that they are not only not left behind, but that they are at the forefront of change in ways that Do No Harm.

The GEDSI work in Phase 1 was foundational for the Extension Phase, with the explicit focus on climate-resilient WASH, which saw partners building on their increased GEDSI understanding and approaches to explore the intersectionality between GEDSI and climate resilience. Understanding the disproportionate impacts of climate change on women and marginalised groups because of pre-existing inequalities, and addressing exclusionary barriers to support their voices and agency for whole-of-community climate resilience solutions was a central feature in the extension phase and in building climate-resilient, inclusive WASH.

While the integration of a twin-track GEDSI approach into the design and MEL frameworks cannot be underestimated for good program design, equally important were the intentional processes put in place by the FC to ensure good GEDSI practice was and remained a top priority of the Fund .

Some key processes that the FC GEDSI team put in place are listed below:

• Fund-wide strategy development. Facilitated the collaborative development of the Towards Transformation in GEDSI Fund strategy at the beginning of the first phase, which ensured partner ownership of these strategies and therefore building them into their own projects. This strategy reflected the 7 principles to guide GEDSI transformative practice that partners collectively identified and agreed on to inform their individual projects and for cross Fund learning initiatives: (1) Hold ourselves accountable (2) Do No Harm and address violence (3) Understand and challenge power and privilege (4) Address inevitable resistance and backlash (5) Think and act holistically (6) Place the right people at the centre, and (7) Push the boundaries of transformative practice. The below figure provides an illustration of how partners collectively defined ‘transformative practice’ in WASH and beyond at the Fund inception workshop.

EOPO1: Systems strengthening

• Fund-wide learning on GEDSI practice. Facilitated the collaborative development of the Towards Transformation GEDSI Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) to support implementing and research teams to reflect on their GEDSI practice and how to strengthen it. This was several years in the making, involving a range of partners across Asia Pacific and involved supporting a cohort of GEDSI SAT facilitators who in turn facilitated the SAT with different project teams across the Fund. A reflections workshop with the many partners involved in developing, trialing, and rolling out the SAT was held in July 2024 highlighted the multiple benefits of undertaking the SAT within their teams and organisations:

-         Demystified GEDSI concept and opened up different ways of thinking

-         Supported empowerment, learning and accountability

-         Highlighted the importance of GEDSI disaggregated data

-         Strengthened capacity and collaboration for GEDSI and transformative processes

-         Strengthened planning mechanisms for more effective and targeted interventions

-         Galvanised support for and commitment to GEDSI

-         Moved from learning to action on GEDSI issues

-         Strengthening partnerships, networks and intersectional understanding

-         Supported their partners to strengthen their GEDSI practice, including Government stakeholders

-         Increased allocation of resources to GEDSI within Government WASH programs

-         Enabled more inclusive recruitment and staffing in organisations

-         Promoted GEDSI transformative change beyond the WASH sector

-         Brought about positive changes in organizational practice and culture

The SAT has been identified by the many partners who have undertaken and facilitated it to be a key legacy of the Fund, and for this reason, the second phase has seen the collaborative redevelopment of the SAT into a cross-sectoral tool, with an explicit climate resilience lens.

• Contextualised GEDSI and power analysis. For individual project designs, partners were required to undertake a GEDSI and power analysis as part of their project designs for both phases (and with the second phase, this included climate risk considerations into their GEDSI analysis), which informed their implementation strategies (GEDSI mainstreamed and targeted) and increasingly intentional Do No Harm approaches.
• Assessment of project designs. GEDSI assessments (including development of assessment criteria for GEDSI with climate lens in the second phase and using DFAT’s gender equality and disability equity criteria) were undertaken by the Fund Coordinator (FC) GEDSI team, and feedback to partners about assessment results (including where GEDSI can be strengthened etc.) was provided.
• Monitoring and continuous feedback. This consisted of monitoring visits to individual projects, as well as six monthly and annual GEDSI synthesis of project reports, with accompanying feedback to partners. These processes also informed content for the Fund learning agendas, analysis and research. In the annual reporting process, partners were required to submit 1-2 stories of transformation, which would reflect what they saw as an aspect of GEDSI transformative change in their projects. In the first phase, the FC facilitated a participatory on-line Most Significant Change process with Fund partner staff to decide on which stories demonstrated the Most Significant Change. One story from each region, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Pacific, would be selected. This process fostered cross learning and dialogue among GEDSI Advisors from the in-country teams.
• GEDSI transformative focus of learning agendas. Inclusive processes for building GEDSI knowledge and learning across the Fund were facilitated by the FC for Phases 1 and 2, which resulted in the co-creation with partners of a number of GEDSI tools, learning briefs and guidance notes over the course of the 7 years, which have been shared globally in a number of international forums (see under EOPO 4). In phase 2, having a specific learning agenda question relating to GEDSI, climate and WASH supported collaboration and involvement of 14 project teams in 9 different countries for GEDSI, climate and WASH data collection for the development of the Criticality of GEDSI for CR WASH learning brief.

While some partners started in the Fund with more GEDSI expertise than others, including more budget allocation in their projects, it was evident that all partners developed their GEDSI expertise in the Phase 1, allocating budget and resources to team capacity building (which for some was developed/enhanced after undertaking the GEDSI self-assessment) and sensitising government partners and other WASH stakeholders. Progress to outcome (PTO) reports over the years are testament to this. In the extension phase, partners built on these foundations to enable in-country partners to explore and understand the connections between GEDSI and climate-resilient WASH (as per the learning brief mentioned above). An important point to note is that partner projects which invested in a dedicated GEDSI role were able to implement more explicit and intentional GEDSI strategies from the outset.

The last couple of years of Phase 1 and the two years of the Extension Phase generally saw more intentional approaches to Do No Harm for empowerment initiatives for and with women, people with disabilities, and to a lesser extent, SGM people, and an increased appreciation of the role of RHOs as an integral part of these approaches. This was evident with the increased and more meaningful engagement with RHOs in systems strengthening work with government stakeholders (see EOPO 1). Deeper work on identifying and addressing harmful and exclusionary social norms to drive healthier WASH behaviours (including relating to menstrual health – see EOPO 2) became more evident during these years, and also to promote whole-of-community resilience for climate-resilient WASH solutions, in the last two years particularly.

Disaggregated data

All partners collected gender disaggregated data against the Fund’s quantitative indicators. The Fund’s Stories of Transformation and annual most significant change (MSC) process supported partners’ qualitative monitoring on GEDSI. Furthermore, in recognition of the importance of collecting qualitative data for measuring progress towards gender and social equality, WfW supported UTS-ISF to develop a qualitative methods toolkit, qualKit: Putting the quality into qualitative GESI transformation measurement. This was developed during and in response to COVID-19 travel restrictions, to support partners in participatory methods to collect qualitative data on GEDSI transformative changes.

Meaningful disability population data continued to be a challenge for projects. National disability data is often weak and underestimated disability prevalence which has hampered useful data when projects used these estimates. Several projects incorporated Washington Group Questions (WGQs) into their community-level surveys, and were able to use this data in advocacy, and in some cases went on to be called upon by government to support improvements to national census and WASH data activities based on their experience. 

Monitoring and reporting

MEL systems embedded both quantitative and qualitative measures for gender and disability, including in terms of beneficiaries and engagement with RHOs and OPDs. Indicators that are likely to mean people with disabilities are being reached (e.g. accessibility of infrastructure, community and information) were also used. Measurement of accessibility of WASH infrastructure and facilities was challenging for some partners and reflected a lack of guidance in the sector on indicators of success. The Fund developed guidance based on partner experiences which has resulted in better reporting on accessibility in WASH projects in its final year and will help fill a guidance gap in the sector. 

Gender and disability situational analysis

Gender and disability analysis was part of all design processes to varying degrees and designs were not approved until a sufficient level of analysis was reached in the extension phase. In terms of disability, project reports indicated that partners were considering barriers to inclusion on an ongoing basis, and where possible, taking action to remove these barriers (e.g. partner SNV in Lao PDR doing door-door dialogue on disability with community members over a year to shift pervasive negative beliefs about people with disabilities and observing improved attitudes and participation of people with disabilities).